ANTHOLOGIES
Girls Write Now Unmuted: The 2021 Anthology
Girls Write Now is thrilled to be in partnership again this year with Dutton, who produced this anthology. A special thanks to the team at Dutton—Christine Ball,Maya Ziv, and Lexy Cassola, and to Feminist Press and Jamia Wilson, who produced the ebook. Thank you as well to Amazon Literary Partnership for their continued support, which directly funds the production of our anthologies.
In the 2021 Girls Write Now Anthology, our mentees give voice to fear and silence, demand justice, and hold nothing back. To be unmuted right now requires a new brand of bravery, and these writers show how it’s done. Using stories, poems, essays, fiction, drama, interviews and more, they report on a global pandemic, a climate crisis and the movement for racial equality. They also invite us on their personal journeys through the labyrinth of young adulthood: feeling the rich soil of a neighborhood garden beneath their fingers; traveling through time in search of their parents; inhaling the charged air where young love is brewing. In a world pushed to the precipice of change, in a society that values the tried and true over the dynamic and new, the Girls Write Now class of 2021 is breaking the chains and showing what it means to speak loud, clear and true—to be unmuted.
Foreword by
Introduction by
Read What's Inside
Browse our collection of stories from inside the book. Complete with notes from the author and anecdotes from our mentees and mentors.
Girls Write Now Unmuted Print Anthology
Stories from Inside "Unmuted" Coming Soon!
Stories from Inside "Unmuted" Coming Soon!
Surviving not Living
As quarantine started in early March, everyone was told to get adjusted to a bizarre lifestyle. Something new, something different to all of us. In this poem, I have expressed how I felt as I was getting adjusted to this new lifestyle.
Mother’s bindi, My bindi
This poem unveils my initial relationship with a specific part of my culture, the bindi, and the change that I go through to fully accept an obscure piece of my identity.
The Human Stages of Life
A collection of poems, letters and photographs detailing what it's like to go through the five stages of human life—childhood, adolescence, adulthood, aging and death—from the perspective of a young girl.
Lyz and Maya Swap Genres
When we first met as mentor and mentee, we began exploring each other’s writing tastes. Sure, we had a lot in common but we also had our strengths and weaknesses as awesome writers. We decided to swap our favorite genres of writing, and provide rules and guidelines for each other to see what developed when we pushed ourselves out of our writing comfort zones.
Moonlight Portrait
"Now they were only one soul, they were complete."
‘Twas Not The Angel On My Shoulder
A riddle in the form of a poem and an answer in the form of flash fiction.
Got Your Back
Mary is a broke grad student whose only excitement is her online relationship with the mysterious "Clay," but Mary has other admirers.
Jaz’s Quest
Jaz, a young time traveler, found herself lost in the future. She's on a quest to find the last missing pieces so she can find her parents.
Lucky
In the context of mortality, the pandemic and the imminent impacts of climate change, it is beyond important to remember how objectively lucky we are to be alive. There is a certain priceless appreciation in simply existing and breathing comfortably within ourselves.
Fourteen Days
This is a collection of haikus written between January 10 and January 23 that captures our combined experiences.
Praise for Here & Now
From the Literary Community
Intersectional Voices in Editorial Print Committee
Every year, the Intersectional Voices in Editorial (IV Edit) Print Committee brings their talents to the task of editing, producing, and promoting this fresh collection of writing from today’s emerging voices. The committee is made up of mentors, mentees, and other volunteers who are passionate about diversifying the publishing landscape.